If Warren Gatland thought he'd have a honeymoon period he was mistaken as his side were taken to the cleaners by a rampant Ireland outfit.
No matter how good a coach Gatland is, fixing all the issues of the Wayne Pivac era in the space of a few weeks was fanciful at best and in reality they were never going to beat the world's number one side first up.
This was Wales' heaviest defeat to Ireland in Cardiff since 2001 and in all honesty this game was lost after a mere 25 minutes.
Tries from Caelan Doris, James Ryan, James Lowe and Josh van der Flier were enough to get Ireland over the line. All Wales could muster was a single try from Liam Williams.
Wales are now on the back foot in this Championship and will have to improve significantly to pinch a victory in Scotland.
Passive defence
Much of Gatland's success during his first tenure was in large part down to defensive mastermind Shaun Edwards, and the intensity they brought to proceedings.
Gatland's sides were often much maligned for a lack of invention behind the scrum, with their defence their point of difference.
Sides had to work their backsides off to get anything against Wales. The expectation was they'd be just as hard to beat during Gatland's second act, with another former rugby league great Mike Forshaw in charge of the defence, but they were far too frail to stop the number one ranked team in the world.
From the word go, Ireland's forwards were making easy yards with the likes of James Ryan, Caelan Doris, and Tadhg Beirne brushing their way through in the blink of an eye Wales were 24-3 down after a mere 21 minutes.
Gatland's side were far too passive in defence which was evident after a mere three minutes when Doris powered his way over the line.
Their line-speed was absolutely insufficient to be competitive against another tier one nation. which made it nigh on impossible to shut out Ireland's attacking threats out wide.
To be fair this was Foreshaw's first game coaching at test level but this was abysmal from Wales. To their credit the line-speed was far better after the interval but the damage had been done during the first 40 minutes.
Win a Wales rugby shirt for the Six Nations below. You can also access it here.
Losing the collisions and a lack of ball carriers
Wales could not match the physicality of Ireland with their pack taken to the cleaners in all aspects of the game.
Between 2008 and 2019, Gatland's success with Wales was built on physicality, a strong defence, winning the collisions, squeeky clean discipline, and an accurate kicking game.
Wales came second best in all these departments but above all Gatland will be most concerned with the general lack of physicality from his pack.
The hosts failed to impose themselves on the Irish, which is always the first port of call if you have any aspirations of getting one over Andy Farrell's side.
While the Irish forwards were relentless with their carrying game, always making big yards, Wales couldn't make any headway.
There's an argument to say Gatland hasn't got the calibre of player he had during his first stint in charge where he had carriers throughout his side.
Apart from Ken Owens and No 8 Taulupe Faletau, the New Zealander hasn't really got the players to consistently get over the gain-line.
Rugby is a simple game with Ireland finding holes out wide because they'd won the prior collisions, and were able to get over the advantage line whereas Wales were more often than not second best in this area.
Error rate and discipline
Success at international rugby often depends on which team makes the fewest errors with discipline also of paramount importance.
Gatland will be furious at the number of unforced errors made by his side. Ireland deserve credit for putting the hosts under pressure but on many occasions Wales were the architects of their own downfall.
Wales tried to force the game too much with the defining error of the game coming when Dan Biggar's pass was picked off by James Lowe who raced in unopposed from his own 22.
There were also two key lineouts which were butchered by the hosts. Early in the second-half, after Liam Williams had scored their only try, Wales were awarded an immediate penalty after Andrew Porter caused a fracas on the floor.
Biggar's kick gave Wales an attacking lineout deep in the visitors' half but Ken Owens' throw was deemed to be not straight, killing momentum. There was a similar moment later in the half when replacement hooker Scott Baldwin's throw was picked off by James Ryan five metres out.
Wales are also prone to giving away too many needless penalties, something which plagued the Wayne Pivac era, and Gatland will make fixing this a priority for the rest of the Championship.
Throughout the course of the 80 minutes Wales' error rate compounded which undermined any hope they had of troubling Ireland.
The breakdown
When Gatland announced his matchday squad on Tuesday the one area where Wales looked strongest was undoubtedly the back-row.
On paper a loose-forward trio of Jac Morgan, Justin Tipuric, and Faletau is world class, sparking hope Wales may be able to gain the upper hand at the breakdown.
But this was yet another area where they were annihilated with Peter O'Mahony, Josh van der Flier, and Doris winning this battle hands down.
But it wasn't just the back-row with their back-line also winning turnovers at the breakdown including replacement centre Bundee Aki who pinched two after the break.
All in all Wales conceded 13 turnovers as opposed to Ireland's five while they beat 30 defenders in comparison to Wales' 15.
If you are going to beat Ireland you simply have to slow their attacking ball down, and Wales failed miserably in this area.
Wales' back-row balance seemed off and they looked as if they missed a destructive blindside, with Ross Moriarty's omission from the squad a real head scratcher.
There was a big improvement when Leicester Tigers fetcher Tommy Reffell took the field, and Gatland must surely consider promoting the 23-year-old to his starting XV for next Saturday's trip to Edinburgh.
READ NEXT:
Wales Under-20s score try from the Gods as All Blacks legend blown away
The making of Joe Hawkins and the video that so impressed his team-mates
Wales players found Johnny Sexton hard to work with at first because he's so demanding
